Month: October 2021

By DAVID KEYTON, FRANK JORDANS and CHRISTINA LARSON Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for finding an “ingenious” and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules that can be used to make a variety of compounds, including medicines and pesticides. The work of Benjamin List and David W.C.

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer The Biden administration is temporarily relaxing the rules for a student loan forgiveness program that has been criticized for its notoriously complex requirements. The change could offer debt relief to thousands of teachers, social workers, military members and other public servants. The Education Department said Wednesday it will drop

By DARIA LITVINOVA Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s daily coronavirus death toll has surpassed 900 for the first time in the pandemic. The record reported Wednesday comes amid a low vaccination rate and the government’s reluctance to impose tough restrictions to control new cases. Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 929 new COVID-19 deaths

By ANDREW MELDRUM Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — As South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu turns 90, recent racist graffiti on a portrait of the Nobel winner highlights the continuing relevance of his work for equality. Often hailed as the conscience of South Africa, Tutu was a key campaigner against South

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Britain is experiencing empty gas pumps, worker shortages and unavailable items on store shelves. None of that got a mention from Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday as he brushed off Britain’s economic bumps and said the country would emerge from Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A court has agreed to lift a shroud of secrecy from the trial of a spy’s lawyer that could potentially confirm that Australia bugged East Timor’s government during multibillion-dollar oil and gas negotiations. The Australian government has refused to comment on allegations that the spy, known

By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press ABOARD GEO BARENTS (AP) — The Libyan Red Crescent says at least 17 bodies, likely of Europe-bound migrants, have washed ashore in western Libya. They were found near the western Libyan town of Zawiya on Tuesday evening. That’s according to the Red Crescent’s branch in the town. The bodies were

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has expressed “shame” for himself and the Roman Catholic Church for the scale of child sexual abuse within the church in France. The pope spoke during his Wednesday regular audience at the Vatican about a report released a day earlier that estimated some 330,000 French children were abused by

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — The two parties that emerged as likely kingmakers from Germany’s election last month say they will hold talks on a possible new government under the leadership of outgoing center-left Social Democrats. If ultimately successful, the negotiations would send outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc into opposition

BERLIN (AP) — German police have carried out large-scale raids in 25 cities in connection with a suspected money-laundering network alleged to have funneled more than $162 million in ill-gotten gains abroad. Some of the money made its way to Islamic militant groups. Duesseldorf police said Wednesday’s raids involved more than 1,000 officers and took

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A Chicago woman convicted of assisting her boyfriend in her mother’s murder and stuffing the body in a suitcase on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali in 2014 is being released early from a 10-year prison sentence. A prison official confirmed that Heather Mack, who was 18